I’m just an “Old Heathen” at heart.

The Weyerbacher Brewing Company in Easton, PA, is one that I’ve found myself returning to time and time again recently. With 13-15 beers available to choose from, they are a brewer that can tap into all segments and taste leanings of the beer marketplace. Although not all their brews ultimately win over my taste buds for life, their well crafted ales continue to make them a destination of choice at my local beer cooler.

Recently I came across Old Heathen, which is their version of an Imperial Stout. Imperial Stouts, so the story goes, were originally made by British brewers with high alcohol content so that they could survive the trip to their destination—the Russian Czarist court.

Though the alcohol content is higher than regular stouts (8% ABV and higher), that is not to say these stouts lack flavor. Though they may be a bit intimating to the beer novice, they are truly some of the better finds to have around the beer fridge in the winter months. With my area of Jersey looking like Minnesota lately, I was glad to have finally found some Old Heathen available.

Weyerbacher’s Web site (www.weyerbacher.com) is effusive with praise about this beer. The brewers promise a “…rich, velvety and deliciously complex” taste and describe their brew as a ”truly distinctive winter warmer.” They produce Old Heathen with ”seven types of malt and two varieties of hops” and promise the beer is ”quite robust and roasty on the palate” with a ” wonderfully fruity nose and a moderately dry finish.” They recommend saving the beer for future aging and it is now available year-round.

Old Heathen pours out to a very dark, oily appearance like that of day old espresso. The beer is pitch black with a bit of a coffee brown colored head. Though there is some fragrance emitted, there is nothing there to indicate a strong hop presence.

The taste is something else. The mouth is assaulted with malt extremes, a chocolate sweetness that melds back and forth between the bitter chocolate taste (like that of a strong cocoa or baker's chocolate) and then back to syrup at the finish and then a dose of dryness at the back of the throat. The warming qualities kick in and there is a nice kind of roasty burn in the throat after swallowing.

There is enough complexity here to keep one’s mouth and taste buds in action. But, Old Heathen also succeeds as a wonderful session beer. This a stout that demands another round and it’s a perfect accompaniment to a winter’s chat by the fireside, perhaps with some strong chocolate dessert or a round of oysters as the brewer suggests.

I am impressed enough with Old Heathen to give it five stars purely for taste reasons. Some reviewers may quibble about its positioning as an Imperial Stout, but that’s to be expected among beer geeks. I find it to be a very impressive stout and one that I will seek out again.

Old Heathen is a tad expensive for everyday drinking at $9.00 a six pack in my area and can be difficult to find. (I saw it once, it sold out, and then I hunted around for it a few weeks later when winter in NJ became a winter wonderland.) I’m going to go back for more and perhaps age a few bottles for next year, unless my will falters and I wind up drinking them all (a very real possibility). It’s that kind of beer.


Recommended: Yes